“Of course we wanted to win with a few goals, but the second didn’t come and in the end the most important thing is the win, especially with it being our first game,” says Kuyt.

“The second could have killed it off, but they defended very deep. We know we have to play better than this, and we will.

“I’m happy with the goal, especially in Europe, because we all know how special this competition is to us.”

While Kuyt has netted in successive games, Torres has raised some concern for a clutch of ineffective performances for both club and country in the past fortnight.

But Kuyt says: “We as players don’t talk about Fernando Torres not scoring. He’s a top striker, a quality player and it’s not always just about scoring the goals. Stevie said we have more who can come up with them now.

“We won 4-0 against Stoke and again on Wednesday and he didn’t score, but I can tell you in the next couple of games he will be there again, because he is the best in the world. There are no concerns whatsoever for me or the team.”

Liverpool made hard work of their midweek victory, but the three points puts them joint top of the early Group E standings ahead of the next game in Fiorentina, for whom star striker Alberto Gilardino is suspended after his red card in the 1-0 defeat at Lyon.

And Albert Riera says: “It was very important to win the first game though, especially for our confidence. We would have preferred to win comfortably but at least we won.

“The other teams know how we are playing and this sometimes makes things difficult, but we were trying to find space in the middle and trying to play really good football when perhaps we should have played more long balls because they were not going to let us play the kind of football what we wanted to. But we like to play good football at home and we will play better than this.

“We have had a strange start to the season but we are going better now and our confidence is improving.”

Riera has started Liverpool’s last two games after admitting to a flare-up with Benitez over his lack of first-team opportunities during the opening weeks of the season.

But the Spanish winger adds: “I have already said that if the season starts and a player is not playing but he is still happy that this is not right. All the players want to play and I am the same.

“If the day comes when I am happy to sit on the bench then I would prefer to retire because I always want to play.

“You need to have respect for your team-mates though, because if I am playing it means someone else won’t be, but I feel that I can give something to this team and that is why I want to play.

“I played a lot of games last season and I hope it is the same this time.”